There are many classic family movies available on Itunes. Many of them in HD, and many of them not available on Blu-Ray yet.
I’ve had a look at some of them and assessed them purely from a video quality point of view, and summarized the results below.
Title | Itunes HD Review |
---|---|
Absent Minded Professor, The | Great: 5/5. Black and white with fine grain throughout at the correct 1.66:1 ratio. A typical Disney studio picture excellently presented. A few compression artifacts present during heavy motion, looks like it could have done with a higher bit rate. Recommended. |
Cat from Outer Space, The | Good: 4/5. Grain and minor dust present in non-studio scenes, some minor artifacting. |
Darby O’Gill and the Little People | Great: 5/5. Grain and excellent color. Sean Connery and little people, who could ask for more. Highly recommended. |
Escape to Witch Mountain | Fair: 3/5. Picture is free of grain and noise, possibly due to the application of DVNR. Not bad, but a little soft. |
Herbie Goes Bananas | Fair: 3/5. Very very grainy. TV movie of the week production values give the movie a very washed out and grainy look. However- I'm pretty sure this is how it's supposed to look. Unfortunately the aspect ratio got lost in the post, the film is presented 4:3, and is the shorter 'TCM' cut. Basically this appears to be the same transfer that was used for the 2004 DVD. Definitely the low point of the Herbie series. |
In Search of Castaways | Great: 5/5. Grain present, strong color. Some very minor artifacting. |
Love Bug, The | Great: 5/5. Grain throughout, the jumps in quality between stock footage, effect shot are obvious and delightful. A fantastic presentation. Highly recommended. |
Moon-spinners, The | Good: 4/5. Color a little muted in places, but probably reflects the source material. Grain and minor dust present throughout. Some minor artifacting. |
Parent Trap, The | Fair: 3/5. Compared to a HDTV broadcast I’ve seen, it has obviously been de-grained. Still an improvement on the DVD. |
Return from Witch Mountain | Good: 4/5. Very little noise and some grain. Better than the original, but still a little soft in places. |
Summer Magic | Good: 4/5. Grain and minor dirt present. |
FTC Disclosure: I am an iTunes and Amazon affiliate advertiser, this means that if you click on one of the links above, I get a very small amount of money.